Rossi to get Free Practice outing in Canada

Alexander Rossi has revealed that he will drive the Caterham CT03 in First Practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The outing will be the first of the 2013 season for the American driver. He was originally scheduled to take the wheel of Caterham’s latest Formula 1 car in Bahrain but the team halted those plans after drafting in Heikki Kovalainen to give his verdict on where the team need to improve.

Rossi currently races in the GP2 series after taking the place of Ma Qing Hua at the second race weekend of the season in Bahrain. He finished on the podium in the feature race, impressively on his series debut, before being knocked into another car at the start of the second race.

After the positive race weekend in Bahrain his focus now moves to the upcoming race weekends in Spain and Monaco. After those he will take the wheel of the CT03 in Canada.

Speaking to ESPN he said Obviously the weekends that I’m not doing GP2 I’ll be looking to be drive the F1 car in Friday practice sessions and that will start in Montreal,”

He added “Beyond that I’ll be doing at least one more, and possibly others, but it’s hard to say exactly what will happen because in F1 you never know for certain until you’re in the car. Whatever happens, the more time you can spend in an F1 car the better.”

The 21-year-old has impressed so far with his strong first weekend in GP2. Rossi is the closest American driver to Formula 1 at the moment although GP3 racer Conor Daly is close behind, testing for Force India at Duxford Airfield on the 1st May.

That second FP1 outing for Rossi could come at his home race in Austin, Texas, for the United States Grand Prix. He has yet to drive a Formula 1 car on home turf during a race weekend after the team decided to give their two race drivers more track time at the new Circuit of the Americas last year.

Jack Leslie is a freelance motorsport journalist. He has been part of the Richland F1 team since the very start and made his debut in the F1 paddock for the website at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix. Jack also writes for Car Throttle and RumbleStripNews, as well as running a popular blog.